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Blood Diamond

I watched this movie with CDMCC a month or 2 ago, but I’ve been rewatching the ending over and over again. It’s an very powerful movie and yet at the same time very touching. The story revolves around conflict diamonds and the steps needed to get the western world to stop buying diamonds from these conflict war zones and stop providing them with fund to purchase more weapons.

Official Site
IMDb: 7.8/10 (19,477 votes)
Yahoo! Movies: The Critics: B- / Yahoo! Users: B+
Rotten Tomatoes: Rating: 63% / Average Rating: 6.4/10
Apple Trailer
Amazon.com DVD
Amazon.com Soundtrack
MY RATING: 8/10

blood diamond posterblood diamond posterblood diamond posterblood diamond posterblood diamond posterblood diamond poster

Spoilers: (Show)

My favorite song out of the soundtrack is ‘London‘. According to iTunes, I’ve played it 99x already. I found a couple videos that featured this song:

There was one song that was used in the ending credits that wasn’t on the soundtrack which I really liked too: Nas – Shine On (music video).

Lyrics from Lyrics Directory

{*Man Singing & Humming in Foreign Language*}

[Intro: Nas]
They wanna shine on ’em
Shine on ’em <– 7X
Yeah

[Verse 1: Nas]
They dug me out the soil in the Mines of the Motherland
Now I’m misplaced, one hand to another hand
Illegal smugglin’, people strugglin’
Wish they could just throw me back in the mud again
Yeah, guess that’s how we got here
Slave Trade then the Diamond Trade
Every child’s afraid
When his Mother and Father get sprayed
Forced in the Army, young killer Brigade
Gets a new name and then he give his nose glue
Til’ his mind can’t take what he’s gon’ through
Lookin’ in that dirt for that ice so blue
Then The Royal Family, the ice goes to
And this thing has to change, feelin’ half-ashamed
As I rap with my Platinum chain
When you shop for a gift for me
You think about the misery?
The same way we made Apartheid History
We can do the same thing to the conflict ice
But everybody wanna shine, right?

[HooK: Nas]
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
They wanna Shine on ’em
Shine on ’em <– 7X

[Verse 2: Nas]
My VVS glimmers on my chest
200-thou-encrusted watch on my wrist
I wonder how people starve to death
When God bless the land that lacks the harvest
The stone’s equality, but they homes are poverty
And the whole world ignores the robbery
Bought my girl pretty rocks when she’s mad at me
Tear-drop shaped, uh, perfect Clarity
It shocks, so many are killed annually
‘Cause of greed, lust, and pure Vanity
Stop talkin’ and do somethin’ about it
Every Holiday Season, Jewelry stores crowded
Kids snatched from their homes, Mutilated alive
Husbands separated from wives, keep a Jesus piece to be fly
But back in the day there was a time when they called us shine

[HooK: Nas]
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants Diamonds without the Bloodshed
They wanna shine on ’em
Shine on ’em <– 7X

{*Man Singing & Humming in Foreign Language*}

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Protecting Keychain Membership Cards

I personally have a bunch of keychain membership cards (which I’m referring to all those club cards, reward cards, etc). Usually with such cards, you get a regular size card (same size as credit card) and 2 smaller ones which fit on on your keychain. Since my wallet is packed with other cards which are more important (credit cards, atm cards, driver license, medical cards, etc), my wallet became extremely packed. Safeway for some reason doesn’t distribute a keychain size card, so for some time, I was carrying the big Safeway club card around for some time. Now, I just enter my phone number so I don’t have to carry that big card around.

Anyway, last night when I was purchasing some game at BestBuy.com, I wanted to enter my BestBuy Reward Zone number, but here’s what I saw:
best buy reward zone keychain card - frontbest buy reward zone keychain card - back

A couple of my other cards have also began to fade away. Maybe that’s why the give you 2 keychain cards because they know that it’ll eventually rub away due to the constant friction against your keys and clothing.

Anyway, I decided to “laminate” my keychain cards, which I’m not sure why they didn’t do it in the first place. By “laminate”, I mean to just use tape and cover the barcode area. I use clear packaging tape which is typically stronger than regular scotch tape, but even regular scotch tape or “invisible” tape should work fine. Afterwards just take a scissor and cut off the protruding tape. I found it easier to just push the scissor than to actually cut. The sharp edges just made it slice the tape rather easy.

I had another interesting digital camera experience taking the above pictures. After my first shot, my Canon PowerShot S400 camera reported a “memory card error”. I turned off, gave it a few smacks and turned it on again and took the next few pictures without any problems. After sticking my CF card into USB reader, I noticed a couple pictures that was previously taken was now corrupted. Oh well. I was actually going to jump on that Dell deal where the Canon PowerShot SD600 was for $150, but I waited too long. I wanted to go home and use my $40 VISA gift card (since Dell can take 2 credit cards as payment), but I guess I snooze I lose.

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Gym Class Heroes – Cupid’s Chokehold

First off, someone posted on Digg a special way to search for mp3 files on Google. All you have to do is go to Google and insert the following as your query:

{-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) search term}

and replace “search term” with what you want.

I’ve also made a simple form so you can do it directly from this page.

MP3 Search Terms:
(requires clicking/activating button)

If you know how to capture the ‘enter’ key event when someone hits enter in the enter box, please let me know. I found this: Capturing a Key, but the way to do it in Netscape/Firefox seems somewhat round about.

Another MP3 search engine was posted on Digg: cr3ation b3ta. However, it’s been down for some time and I’m not sure if it’s the Digg Effect or if it’s down permanently. I’m not sure where it was getting it’s results, but they would slowly pop up as if it was parsing websites returned from a search engine and if it found a link with the mp3 extension and had the search term, it’d display it.

Heard another song on the radio that I really liked: Gym Class Heroes – Cupid’s Chokehold (music video). For some reason it reminds me of the song I heard back in ’95: Jamiroquai – Virtual Insanity (music video).

gym class heroes - the papercut chronicles - cd album covergym class heroes - cupid's chokehold - cd album cover

Lyrics: (from eLyrics)

Ba ba da da
Ba ba da da
Ba ba da da
Ba ba da da
Ba ba da da

Take a look at my girlfriend
She’s the only one I got (ba ba da da)
Not much of a girlfriend
I never seem to get a lot (ba ba da da, ba ba da da)

It’s been some time since we last spoke
This is gonna sound like a bad joke
But momma I fell in love again
It’s safe to say I have a new girlfriend

And I know it sounds so old
But cupid got me in a chokehold
And I’m afraid I might give in
Towels on the mat my white flag is wavin’

I mean she even cooks me pancakes
And Alka Seltzer when my tummy aches
If that ain’t love then I don’t know what love is

We even got a secret handshake
And she loves the music that my band makes
I know I’m young but if I had to choose her or the sun
I’d be one nocturnal son of a gun

(ba ba da da, ba ba da da)

Take a look at my girlfriend
She’s the only one I got (ba ba da da)
Not much of a girlfriend
I never seem to get a lot (ba ba da da, ba ba da da)

Take a look at my girlfriend
She’s the only one I got (ba ba da da)
Not much of a girlfriend
I never seem to get a lot (ba ba da da, ba ba da da)

It’s been awhile since we talked last and I’m tryin’ hard not to talk fast
But dad I’m finally thinkin’ I may have found the one
Type of girl that will make you way proud of your son

And I know you heard the last song about the girls that didn’t last long
But I promise this is on a whole new plane
I can tell by the way she says my name (ba ba da da)

I love it when she calls my phone
She even got her very own ringtone
If that ain’t love then I don’t know what love is (ba ba da da)

It’s gonna be a long drive home but I know as soon as I arrive home
And I open the door take off my coat and throw my bag on the floor
She’ll be back into my arms once more for sure

Take a look at my girlfriend
She’s the only one I got (ba ba da da)
Not much of a girlfriend
I never seem to get a lot (ba ba da da, ba ba da da)

She’s got a smile that would make the most senile
Annoying old man bite his tongue
I’m not done
She’s got eyes comparable to sunrise
And it doesn’t stop there
Man I swear
She’s got porcelain skin of course she’s a ten
And now she’s even got her own song
But movin’ on
She’s got the cutest laugh I ever heard
And we can be on the phone for three hours
Not sayin’ one word
And I would still cherish every moment
And when I start to build my future she’s the main component
Call it dumb call it luck call it love or whatever you call it but
Everywhere I go I keep her picture in my wallet like here

Take a look at my girlfriend
She’s the only one I got (ba ba da da)
Not much of a girlfriend
I never seem to get a lot (ba ba da da, ba ba da da)

Take a look at my girlfriend
She’s the only one I got (ba ba da da)
Not much of a girlfriend
I never seem to get a lot (ba ba da da, ba ba da da)

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The Number 23

You do know what day it is today right? 3/14 or 3.14, the day of Pi. According to Pi fans to meet March 14 (3.14, get it?), It is about a curious group of people with an almost religious zeal for a mind-numbing string of numbers. Actually one number, made up of a chain that is known — so far — to be more than one trillion digits long. They are the acolytes of the church of pi. And once a year many of them gather to talk about pi, rhapsodize about it, eat pi-themed foods (actual pie, sure, but so much more), have pi recitation contests and, just maybe, feel a little less sheepish about their unusual passion.

Along with that, I’ll found this: The Ten Coolest Numbers (from Digg).

Anyway, I had saw these links after watching The Number 23 with CDMCC. The movie was okay, but I don’t think the movie gave the audience enough clues to figure out the ending, which came pouring out like a fire hydrant once the valve was opened. It’s basically about a man who encounters a book talking about the number 23 and starts seeing similarity in this life and begins to obsess about the number himself.

The Official Site
IMDb: 6.3/10 (6,569 votes)
Yahoo! Movies: The Critics: C / Yahoo! Users: B-
Rotten Tomatoes: Rating: 8% / Average Rating: 3.5/10
Apple Trailers
Amazon.com Soundtrack
Amazon.com Showtimes
MY RATING: 6/10

the number 23 poster

Spoilers: (Show)

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FFDShow’s XviD Thumbnail Generator Not Working?

For quite some time, FFDShow’s XviD thumbnail generation has stopped working on my main box. I first realized this when I uninstalled the XviD codec because it was crashing explorer whenever it was trying to create thumbnails for what I can only assume to be faulty formatted XviD files. After unistalling the XviD codec, explorer no longer crashed, but it would no longer create thumbnails for XviD files. I thought maybe uninstalling the XviD codec removed something FFDShow installed, so I reinstalled FFDShow, checked the reset all settings box and tried again. I even rebooted my machine just because it said something similar to “To complete the setup, you must restart the computer.” Anyway, XviD thumbnail generation still didn’t come back. I even logged into my administrator account (since I’m running as a non-admin user for my default account) to see if it could be something related to being an administrator. That didn’t fix it either.

I actually resorted back to installing the XviD codec so thumbnail generation would work and avoided directories I knew which would crash on me.

Anyway, after Ryan brought up the issue a few days ago, I decided to to get to the bottom of this once and for all. Once again, I uninstalled the XviD codec and installed the latest FFDShow. And it still didn’t work. I tried forcing FFDShow to decode every codec possible in the list provided. That didn’t work either, which I then reverted.

Finally, I remember these 2 new pages in setup that asked for a whitelist of programs that FFDShow should only be allowed to be used in. I remember, I had to add oblivion.exe and morrowind.exe before to the do not use FFDShow in list. I went into the Video Decoder Configuration and in “Info & Debug”, after the “Don’t use ffdshow in:” line, there was a “Use ffdshow only in:” line. I was like, this wasn’t here before… I check the list and indeed, explorer.exe was not listed in there and the checkbox was enabled. I added “explorer.exe” and guess what… my thumbnail generation for XviD files via FFDShow is working!

Random Crap:

GDC: LittleBigPlanet ‘Full Demo Run’ (from MS newsgroup) – MUST SEE demo of new, amazing PS3 game. I have to say, that game looks rather cool and fun. Not enough to get me to buy a PS3 though. Kudos for those game developers! In the same thread, someone posted La réalité augmentée (Augmenting Reality) which I was totally amazed with what it could do. You have to see their live demonstration. Do note, this is in real time and not post-processed.

Piotr Fox Wysocki – The Artist himself (from Digg) – A very realistic human facial 3d rendering.

Electricman2HS (from Digg) – a very fun stick figure fighting game. Reminds me of Xiao Xiao. I beat all x levels on Easy, but it was an amusing 30 minutes.

Fable 2 Dog Demo (from Digg) – With Fable 2 just around the corner, they’ve introduced a new aspect to the game, which is your dog. Really cool. Reminds me of the level of interactivity with your pet in Nintendogs. The dog’s awfully cute. I wonder if I could choose which breed it is.

Stereo Eclipse (from Digg) – “What an extraordinary view,” says Lika Guhathakurta, STEREO Program Scientist at NASA headquarters. The fantastically-colored star is our own sun as STEREO sees it in four wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light. The black disk is the Moon. “We caught a lunar transit of the sun,” she explains. The stereo eclipse looks like an eye ball that needs some eye drops.

Wonder Woman, Your Car Is Ready… (from Digg) – Computer-generated outline? Nope. It’s real. Dubbed “Modern Japanese Classic,” this 1:1 Subaru Impreza wire frame sculpture is the work of British artist Benedict Radcliffe. Apparently local traffic cops weren’t pleased that the art was parked outside of the gallery on the street, as over the course of a few days, it was issued a few parking tickets! The marilyn-bmw-hood.jpgpiece was recently displayed as part of a larger Radcliffe show at the Paul Smith Gallery in Mayfair last month, and we’re sorry we missed it. I was thinking and thinking… where’s the car? All the images looked like there was a computer outline of a car on them. However, upon closer inspection, that is really a frame and not CG.

Wipe out a single memory (from Digg) – Drug can clear away one fearful memory while leaving another intact. A single, specific memory has been wiped from the brains of rats, leaving other recollections intact. Neat! This can totally be like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.

Tremendous Symbiosis of Progress and Nature (from Digg) – The Stockholm Metro, or Stockholms tunnelbana, is the metro system in Stockholm, Sweden. The system has three main lines and one hundred stations, 47 of which are subterranean and 53 are aboveground (surface and elevated) stations. This subway station is totally awesome!!!

The Best Auteur You Never Saw (from FuzzyWuzzy) – Svankmajer has spent much of the past 40 years working in the relative cinematic obscurity of Prague, his hometown, where he has handcrafted 32 wondrously bizarre, funny and deeply disturbing films. Though he remains the most anonymous of the world’s essential filmmakers, Svankmajer’s also one of the more influential: Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and David Cronenberg are all students of what might be called the Svankmajer School of the Grotesque. Those moving meat are rather creepy. Interesting film though.

OK kids, colour in a gangsta… (from Angelus) – FURIOUS parents last night demanded that a colouring book for kids showing gun-toting rappers should be taken off the shelves. The 30-page Gangsta Rap book, which has a loaded pistol on its cover, is on sale at Topshop for £6.

The extreme end of stubbornness (from Derek) – Developers came and bought up all the houses around these guys. They refused. The bulldozers came anyways. Apparently the family has government connections, and is not expected to be forced out. According to one of the commenters:

This is in Chongqing, China.

The problem was this. The owner of the house would not leave without getting paid a large sum of money, how much? 20,000,000RMB, that’s about $2mil. No one is living in there, but the owner would not move unless the money is paid. And house owner claims to have connections with the officials, and dares anyone who destroys his house.

http://news.cq.soufun.com/2007-03-11/975176.htm

Throughout IRAN (from Digg) – This is a gallery intended to show views of other side of Iran, different with what you may have seen in the media. And now after about 4 month, this gallery obtains more than 100,000 hits, locates among top popular galleries in 90 days period and the most importantly, attracts attention of those nice people who visits, leaves COMMENT and VOTE; I appreciate all these supports. This encourage me to keep this Gallery live with new views of my country, as long as I can take picture. (12.03.07)
Hope to enjoy it. I have to say, Iran is a lot more beautiful than I had imagined.

Ants test nonviolence of Buddhist monks – Buddhist monks, who are bound by faith to nonviolence, are grappling with how to rid a temple of a severe ant infestation without killing the insects. I think leaving a trail of coke to another temple would work. ;p

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New Music

I’ve purchased 2 new tracks from iTunes after I heard them on the radio and really liked the tune. They’ve been played back and forth between one another (50+ times already).

Nelly Furtado – Say It Right (YouTube Music Video)

nelly furtado - loose - cd album cover

Lyrics: (from Complete Album Lyrics)

In the day
In the night
Say it all
Say it right
You either got it
Or you don’t
You either stand or you fall
When your will is broken
When it slips from your hand
When there’s no time for joking
There’s a hole in the plan

Oh you don’t mean nothing at all to me
No you don’t mean nothing at all to me
Do you got what it takes to set me free
[ these lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com ]
Oh you could mean everything to me

I can’t say that I’m not lost and at fault
I can’t say that I don’t love the light and the dark
I can’t say that I don’t know that I am alive
And all of what I feel I could show
You tonite you tonite

From my hands I could give you
Something that I made
From my mouth I could sing you another brick that I laid
From my body I could show you a place God knows
You should know the space is holy
Do you really want to go?

Rihanna & Sean Paul – Break It Off (YouTube Music Video)

rihanna - a girl like me - cd album cover

Lyrics: (from eLyrics)

[Sean Paul]
Break It Off
Breakin it off
And settin it off in da real way
Makin da girls dem chill dey mind
Makin dem have a good time
Ya man
SPZ long side RiRi
Come down now Rihanna
Tek it to dem Tek it to dem girl

[Refrain]
Break it off boy
Cuz ya got me feelin naughty
I wanna know boy
If I could be ya shawty (most definitely)
Set if off boy
And make me hot all ova my body
(Break it off, take it off, miss take it off) (Break it off tonight) (Yo)
Break it off boy
Cuz ya got me feelin naughty
I wanna know boy
If I could be ya shawty (yo, yo)
Set it Off boy (yeah, yeah)
Make me hot all ova my body
Break it off tonight (yo)

[Verse 1]
Struggle and pain wha she fell all de while
And she want a good man to give her de style
Wild child
So she dere pon me file
It’s a long time now me wha plow de sile
Plow de sile meh car run run like de nile
And de most energy meh whan gi her tonight
Give her tonight
Gan make she feel right
Make she fly like a kite that reach a new height
Ah we give it to de gyal dem
Make dem reel up and bawl
And make dem start call
Anytime she want it back she ha fi call Dutty Paul
Admittin it on de spot I know de real Sean Paul
When de traits so great
Cuz she feelin top up and tall wat de ting say

[Refrain]
Break it off boy (immediate if not before)
Cuz ya got me feelin naughty
I wanna know boy
If I could be ya shawty (pumba)
Set if off boy
And make me hot all ova my body
(Break it off, take it off, yo miss take it off) (Break it off tonight) (Yo)
Break it off boy
Cuz ya got me feelin naughty
I wanna know boy
If I could be ya shawty (yo, yo)
Set it Off boy (yeah, yeah, yo yo, yo a yo, RiRi, SPZ)
Make me hot all ova my body
Break it off tonight (yo, yo)

[Verse 2]
No doubt
Gyal u shoulda know SP and a scout(?)
Naughty sweat so shout(?)
Make ya bawl out (shout)
Make ya holla me gah give affection in your direction
We go all out
Gyal, just follow we if ya love energy
If ya whan pedigree
Cruise like Penelope
Make a see yuh just bounce wit de Dutty Lee
We keep givin you de Q to de U to de A (yea) to de L to de I to de T to de Y
Girl I got to try (try)
Take yuh booty make you reach to de S.K.Y.
Woman I got to say (say)
Da way u move is makin me hype
Girl cuh yuh know say yuh S to de E to de X to de Y (Pumba Pumba)

[Refrain]
Break it off boy
Cuz ya got me feelin naughty
I wanna know boy
If I could be ya shawty (sexiness)
Set it off boy
Make me hot all ova my body (yo, yah go yo, no doubt)
Break it off tonight (yo RiRi)
Break it off boy
Cuz ya got me feelin naughty
I wanna know boy
If I could be ya shawty (Blaze up on no rain no stress)
Set it off boy
Make me hot all ova my body
Break it off tonight (yea, yo, ya yo)

[Rihanna]
Boy (Uh huh)
The way you push up on me I
Whan get da roughest wine I dun know ya like (ay, yo, ay)
Fuh sho we gonna break it off tonight (yoga macchugga uh)
Ooooo boy
We really shouldn’t waste no time (sing it)
Come let me back up on ya dancehall’s tight (bring it)
And I’m hopin baby u don’t mind
Cuz I really wanna break it off tonight (instantaneous)

[Refrain]
Break it off boy
Cuz ya got me feelin naughty (ay)
I wanna know boy
If I could be ya shawty
Set it off boy
Make me hot all ova my body (baby girl, yo, baby girl)
Break it off tonight (yo give it up give it up sen on)
Break it off boy
Cuz ya got me feelin naughty (yo)
I wanna know boy
If I could be ya shawty
Set it off boy
Make me hot all ova my body
Break it off tonight

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First AdBrite Check

I got my 1st payment from AdBrite to the sum of $15 and change. They’re on a net-60 basis, which I found out meant even if I get $1 on a particular day, it won’t fully qualify to be withdrawn until 60 days later. Anyway, I’m averaging $14 and change for a 30 day period right now and it’s slowly been going up. I was only averaging $12 for a 30 day period just a few weeks ago. Since my hosting costs only $7.95/mo, I’m doing rather well.

I started hosting AdBrite ads about mid November, and given the 60 day wait before I can cash out, I think I’m doing rather well. While I’m not sure how well I would’ve done with Google Ads, I would never have expected to see a check in just a few months. With the minimum of $100 before you can cash out at Google, it’s quite a lot for a small site like mine to accumulate to. At the pace with Google Ads, I was expecting at least 8-9 months before I would see my 1st check.

With AdBrite, I’m not sure what the minimum amount you could specify is, but I currently have it set to mailing me a check whenever I hit over $10 at the end of the month.

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Daylight Saving Time

It’s that time of year again, but this time, we’re a couple weeks ahead of schedule due to changes in policy. Since it’s Spring, we’re set the clock forward (spring forward, fall back). Both my computer and my Weather Channel radio controlled clock jumped from 2am to 3am.

UserFriendly – Sundial – Suddenly. These are looking pretty fabulous to software maintainers.

Random Crap:

There was another strip from UserFriendly that I found amusing: Cracked Copy of Vista for Cracked Copy of Civilization 4.

RayAlome had sent me a link to the trailer of Paprika. The animation was amazing. I really liked the quote it had near the end:

Evidence that Japanese animators are reaching for the moon, while most of their American counterparts remain stuck in the kiddie sandbox.”

-Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Stereogram Tut Animated Shark Small (from Digg) – I was just talking to Lisymle the other day about Magic Eye and Stereogram images and she told me she has never gotten a magic eye to work. I tried to show here a few websites and techniques on trying to focus beyond the screen and merge the 2 images, but she hasn’t been able to do it yet. This was the first magic eye in animation that I’ve seen. Pretty neat. See if you can see the shark wiggle.

Big Brother State – An animated short about public surveillance by David Scharf (from Digg) – an interesting film. When I saw it earlier, it was a higher quality version. It appears you can still download the higher quality version off bittorrent or download it from Internet Archive. I do have to disagree with his bit on TC (Trusted Computing). It may be true that TC will warn users about particular software that’s being installed, but I still have final say if something gets installed or not (or at least I hope so).

German man chainsaws house in two in divorce split (from Digg) – A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck. Awesome!

Mom accused of driving son to fight boy – The mother of a 13-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly driving her son to a fight with another boy, then cheering him on as he struck his smaller opponent. Police say the mother shouted down another woman who tried to break up the fight across from Sutter Middle School on Monday. A student caught the scene on video.

Hole in pyjamas reveals Internet plagiarism – Candidates for British universities have been caught red-handed copying their applications from the Internet after hundreds mentioned “burning a hole in pyjamas at age eight” on their online entrance forms. The phrase, taken from a Web site which provides examples of personal statements used by successful candidates, describes an early encounter with a chemistry set.

Fans pay to chat with Jackson in Japan – ) – Excited fans got the chance to meet Michael Jackson in Tokyo on Thursday — but only those who could afford to pay 400,000 yen (1,770 pounds) for the privilege.

Animaniacs – Rob Paulson (Yakko) – Nations of the World (from RayAlome) – Here’s a little thing a friend of a f… Here’s a little thing a friend of a friend of mine went to. She saw Rob Paulson who is absolutely awesome! He’s here singing the world song! You can hear her scream her lungs out at the end! Enjoy! =P It’s been so long since I’ve watched this cartoon. Oh what sweet memories.

Beijing’s Olympic Stadium (from Digg) – I’ve got to say, the design is rather cool.

25 UC Berkeley Courses Available via Free Video (from Digg) – Not long ago, we wrote a popular piece about UC-Berkeley’s iTunes initiative which, to sum it up, allows anyone, anywhere, to download complete university courses to their iPods for free. Amazing. Today, we want to point out that Berkeley also makes available full-fledged courses via video/webcast. You can find the complete list of courses here, but below we have listed below 25 courses that figure into a “core” undergraduate curriculum. In short, this list includes many good nuts and bolts courses, which will teach you a lot and, even better, cost you nothing. Each of these courses, coming straight from the classroom, can be accessed with Real Player, and some can also be accessed as MP3s. I remember when I had to go through a whole semester’s worth of these before finals. Or did I…?

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The Host (괴물)

Just watched this movie tonight with Desperajo, Stanman, and Saran. Really good movie in my opinion. If you had asked me if horror and comedy could ever be mixed, I wouldn’t have known how to answer before watching this. I’ve been hearing than Korean Horror is the new Japanese Horror. Honestly, it’s not really that scary. If I had to give it a scary level, I’d say it’s a little bit more scarier than Jurassic Park. The creature design was definitely interesting and the trailer was somewhat misleading. And the ending… well…

Official Site
IMDb: 7.2/10 (3,133 votes)
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PlayStation Home

PlayStation Home revealed (from MS newsgroup) – Good news for the PlayStation camp, full details of Sony’s PlayStation Home have been revealed, and it ain’t no slacker. Alongside those avatars and achievements we heard about earlier, the “service” seems to be a new-gen Second Life killer, with public hangouts, personal apartments (to show off those fancy prizes you’ve been racking up in recent frag fests) and voice chat. The seeming-MMO even includes casual games such as pool, bowling and arcade machines embedded into the world, but at any time you can invite a fellow resident to join in on any PlayStation Network-capable game. I was pretty amazed at what PlayStation Home was. As a online game match setup mediator, I personally don’t think it works that well, but like Second Life and other MMO (massive multiple player) games, I’ve always considered it as a social chatroom.

Of course, Sony’s going to charge an arm and a leg for this. The joining aspect might be free, but to purchase real estate, to furnish your home, to purchase clothes that match your style, is going to cost you.

I personally am not a big MMO fan as I don’t really see a point in it. It’s like why would I want to furnish a virtual house, when I could be using that money to furnish my real house. But the concept is still pretty cool in my opinion.

They had a small demo where you can play music and everyone that’s around you would be able to listen. That got me thinking. When these people chat, you see dialog boxes like comic strips pop up on top of them. With Xbox Live, practically everyone has a headset/microphone. How cool would it be, instead of chatting, you could hear everyone around you?

Of course, there’s going to be settings you can customize, like if you want to only be able to hear friends or hear everyone around you, how far you want to be able to listen, how far you want your voice to broadcast, if you only want friends or everyone to be able to hear you, etc. For example, I could set that I want to hear everyone around me within a 5ft radius and I want my voice to travel also a 5ft radius, that way everyone that’s within 5ft of me will be able to hear what I’m saying.

If you’re in a park, you’ll hear the birds flutter and chirp, little kids having fun, basically background noise. Then you have your circle of friends and you’re just chatting. The voice will also be directional, so if Tim was on my right, his voice would mostly be coming out from my right speaker. Multiple people can speak at once also so you can really have a conversation going. Hehe. I might’ve taken this tangent a little too far.

Random Crap:

Geometry Wars (from MS newsgroup) is available to be downloaded for the PC. Interestingly enough the game is 61.5MB, a lot bigger than the Xbox Live Arcade counterpart. If you want the full version, it also costs $7.95, about $3 more than what it would could via Xbox Live Arcade (which is 400pts = $5, and if you can get a deal on points, you can get it for cheaper). Geometry Wars is rather fun and it’d be interesting controlling it with the keyboard/mouse. I tend to be more accurate with the keyboard rather than the joystick.

Meat-loving calf eats chickens (from MS newsgroup) – But Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, eventually solved the puzzle when he caught his cow — a sacred animal for the Hindu family — gobbling up several of them at night. … “The local vets said the cow was probably suffering from a disease but others said Lal was a tiger in his previous birth,” Ajit added.

Tofu Thriller Dance (from MS newsgroup) – A pretty cool 3d animation video of Tofu The Vegan Zombie dancing and singing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

aPhone by Microsoft (from MS newsgroup) – a parody of Microsoft coming out with a product to compete against Apple’s iPhone.

japanese 5 year old kid playing ddr! awesome (from MS newsgroup) – founded in the net… awesome 5 year old kid playing ddr!! gotta watch!! he’s so cute playing it XD Ryota’s name reminds me of the shy little boy from At Home Dad. Anyway, this little boy’s amazing on the DDR pad. After he wins, he even goes announce to his mom he got an AA score. Very cute.

RvD2: Ryan vs. Dorkman 2 (from RayAlome) – The hotly-anticipated sequel to the original YouTube phenomenon. Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement. Send this video to all your friends! High-quality version available at stage6.divx.com. YouTube messed up the sound mix so the quality is better all-around on Stage 6. Their light saber battles have always been interesting. You can visit their homepage too. Do be warned, the higher quality version is 430MB.

SinFest – The Next Step in Evolution – the dog and cat are always so cute, but another proof that cats are evil.

Entertainment Savers Guide (from SD) – Register at the SaversGuide for access to hundreds of discounts. Save at restaurants, hotels, retailers, attractions and more! … Your registration is valid for one year. A pretty slick deal. Go and print coupons from the Entertainment booklet for FREE. I was looking at movie tickets and you can pre-order a bunch for $5-6, which is a very good deal.

Illinois Man Fined Thousands And Threatened With Felony Prosecution For Using Untaxed Biodiesel (from Digg) – David Wetzel, a 79 yr old retired chemist from Decatur IL had been using recycled vegetable oil in his 1985 Volkswagen Golf diesel car for 7 years. This January, ” the State of Illinois Dept. of Revenue sent 2 “special agents,” Gary May and John Egan to his house. The two agents threatened the couple with felony charges and asked them to post a $2,500 bond!” Sigh…